Month: March 2018

Aside from kicking off my series of posts on how the books of the late Jack Ketchum fared onscreen, I haven’t produced much visible work this month. As far as invisible work is concerned, though, things are different. I’ve been prepping the second issue of Midnight Widows (pencilled by the always-wonderful Marcela Hauptvogelova, inked by myself, colourist TBA) which has been taking up a good chunk of my time and shaping up to be something I am very proud of indeed. The crowdfunding drive is still on track to be launched sometime this year.

I’ve also been writing. My book Monster Hunters, Dinosaur Lovers: Speculative Fiction in the Culture Wars is still taking shape bit by bit, and on top of that, I’ve got a second book that’s about halfway finished. Announcement coming later…

I’ve got another Amazing Stories retrospective up. The series has taken me halfway through 1927, and thus month there’s a selection of stories on the theme of finned people with spherical vessels that can make ocean liners levitate. Good times for all!

Well, as you’ve no doubt already heard, a Scottish YouTube comedian known as “Count Dankula” has been convicted of inciting racial hatred for a video he uploaded. He has yet to be sentenced, but it is possible that he will go to prison. His crime was to upload a video called M8 Yer Dugs A Naazi, in which he trains his girlfriend’s pug to raise its front leg in a vague approximation of a Nazi salute.

Much of the discussion about the video focuses on the pug and its “salute”, but this is a bit of a red herring. The crux of the matter is clearly Dankula’s speech. During the course of the video, much of his voiceover consists of “do you wanna gas the Jews? Do you wanna gas the Jews? Do you wanna gas the Jews? Go and gas the Jews, son! Go and gas the Jews, son! Gas the Jews! Gas the Jews!” as he tries to train the dog.

I’ve been running a retrospective on Amazing Stories‘ earliest issues for a while now, so I’m happy to report that the pioneering SF mag is on track for some new issues thanks to this Kickstarter campaign. Perks for backers include signed copies of various books, plus the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve helped to get Amazing back into the marketplace of SF magazines.